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As Lionel Messi continued his excellent World Cup form and sealed Argentina’s progression into the round of 16, the two-time world champions are faced with an absolutely astonishing statistic.

Despite reaching the knockout stages of the World Cup for the past two times, the team which has boasted the talents of Gabriel Batistuta, Juan Riquelme, Hernan Crespo and other top players in the past, have not defeated a European team (excluding penalty kicks) since the final of the 1986 World Cup.

In 1990, Argentina needed penalty kicks to eliminate both Yugoslavia and hosts Italy. In 1994, they were knocked out by Romania in the round of 16 following Diego Maradona’s failed drug test. In 1998, they eliminated England on penalty kicks and lost to the Netherlands in the quarter-finals. The Germans eliminated them in 2006 and 2010.

For a team looking to win their third world title, this is as good of a chance as they will get to break that curse. Despite Gonzalo Higuain’s dreadful form so far and Sergio Aguero’s injury, Argentina stands a solid chance of eliminating the Swiss in the round of 16. Ezequiel Lavezzi can be brought in to replace the injured Manchester City star or Alejandro Sabella can even switch to a 4-4-2 formation.

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While Messi himself has stated that he prefers to play a 4-3-3 as opposed to the more conservative 4-2-2, Argentina started with the more conservative line up when they defeated Switzerland back in 2012 via a Messi hat-trick (his first for his country) in their 3-1 victory.

With Xherdan Shaqiri scoring a hat-trick himself for his country against Honduras, he will obviously be seen as one of the players to closely mark. Fernando Gago didn’t look too fast and was slow in helping out defensively against Nigeria, adding an extra body in midfield can help out Sabella’s men. Enzo Perez is an excellent box-to-box midfielder as he’s great in tracking back and just as good when attacking.

Sabella experimented in the second half against Nigeria by bringing on Ricardo Alvarez for Messi. Alvarez did well by holding the ball and drawing fouls and while that doesn’t mean he will start against Switzerland, it does give him the upper hand in that department. While Alvarez isn’t defensively as strong as Perez, he is good in attack.

Lucas Biglia shields the ball against Iran. (Picture: Getty Images)

Lucas Biglia is another player which has been used in the last few minutes of Argentina’s matches at the World Cup when they have looked to keep a lead. A smart player who always keeps it simple, Biglia has played with many of these Argentina players going as far back as the 2005 U20 World Cup.

No matter Sabella’s choice of formation against Switzerland, he’s got a great wealth of talent sitting on the bench. All of which can be used to help break the curse.